DOWNEY – Junior forward Kristine Pasek has been a scoring machine all season for the Granite Hills girls soccer team, and in Saturday morning’s CIF DivisionII Southern California Regional championship, Pasek scored two goals in the first four minutes of the game to lead the Cougars’ 2-1 upset of Beckman at Warren High School.

Beckman (20-4-1) answered quickly when Autumn Allmirano scored seven minutes into the game, but Granite Hills (25-3-1) goalie Katie Nearhoff shut the Patriots down for the final 73 minutes to preserve the win.

Kierstyn Cruz sent a beautiful cross that Pasek headed in for her 42nd goal of the season, and just 82 seconds later Pasek headed in a corner kick off the foot of Ashley Ibarra for her 43rd.

“It was so important for us to get up early, because we knew we were playing against a great team,” Pasek said.

“I couldn’t be more happy to do my part in helping us become state champions, but every player on our team and the coaching staff all contributed to this great accomplishment.”

Nearhoff had a game-high eight saves, and the senior was emotional after the huge victory.

“I saw us play and lose three CIF title games, and this was my last game as a senior, and I put all of my heart and soul into this game so that we could end the season as state champs,” Nearhoff said.

“It took a lot of pressure off of me when Kristine scored twice, but we knew Beckman would not stop, and neither did we. I was going to do everything in my power in the last 73 minutes of the game to keep them out of the goal, and thanks to my defense we did that.”

Beckman goalie Jessica Miller also played well after allowing the two goals, getting five saves for the Patriots.

“Giving up two goals early is always hard to come back from, but I thought our girls fought hard,” Beckman coach Stacy Colon said.

“We played them pretty even throughout, but their defense did just enough to hold that early lead they got.”

After the game, Cougars coach Mike Bradbury was finally able to let out a sigh of relief after some late-season disappointments.

“We learned a lot from our loss to Cathedral Catholic in the 2008 regional, because they scored three early goals on us and we knew we needed to do that against an incredibly talented team like Beckman,” Bradbury said.

“Kristine’s play was so huge and was the difference in the game, and I know how happy it makes her to help her teammates win a state title.

“Our defense, our goalie and all of our players all had a part in getting us to where we got to today.”